The Belfast Harlequins Club was formed when the North of Ireland Rugby Club and the Collegians Rugby Club, the Collegians Hockey Club, the Belfast Bowling Club, and the North of Ireland Cricket Club were merged into a single Club.

In 2002 the new Club played its first season at the newly renovated grounds at Deramore, the home of the Collegians Club.

The Collegians Cricket Club had moved from Deramore some years prior to 2002 and had merged with Cooke, so there was no 'indigenous' cricket club at the ground to merge with.

Sadly Henry Harrison, the groundsman at Ormeau, did not make the move to Deramore, and his enthusiasm and dedication were to be sorely missed. The quality of pitches and the condition of the out field emerged as a recurring problem at Deramore, particularly as 2002 proved to be one of the wettest seasons for many years.

The professional for the three years at Deramore was Ejaz Ahmed, an elegant, accomplished batsman and off spinner who had a Test appearance and several one day internationals for Pakistan under his belt.

The European Cup was held in Northern Ireland in 2002 and in July the Club hosted the unlikely seeming fixture of Austria v Germany! (Germany won comfortably).

In August a new milestone was set when a Club Presidents XI played an NCU Presidents XI in what was widely believed to be the first day/night game in Ireland. Two hired floodlights supplemented the rugby lights and the set up proved to be just adequate for an enjoyable 40 over game to take place, the home team winning by 5 runs.

By contrast to 2002, the summer of 2003 was largely warm and sunny.

The 1st XI did well to reach the Challenge Cup Final where they were defeated by North Down in a rain affected game played over three days.

As part of the lead up to this game the 1st XI Captain prepared a fun questionnaire for the players. The questions included "favourite ground" and "least favourite ground" and a high proportion of players put Deramore as their least favourite ground.

Increasingly the signs were that the future of cricket at Deramore was not rosy.

In August Ejaz Ahmed's benefit game was held. Ejaz named his team after his recently born daughter, and the invited opponents were captained by Lisburn's Gary Blair, so the teams for the game were Eshi's XI v Gusher's XI. This was another day/night game, and proved to be a highly entertaining game including fifties by Daniel Manohar (72) and Ryan Haire (50*) for Gusher's XI and by Ralph Coetzee (70) and Brian Baguley (59) for Eshi's XI.

As 2004 progressed it became clear that the future of cricket at Deramore was increasingly in doubt. In spite of active efforts to attract youngsters to the Club, the number of players available for selection was in decline; the Club was struggling to field three teams.

An area of the outfield of about 20 yards square had been left in an unsuitable condition, heavily pitted and covered with sand, and the boundary had to be moved inside this area. The difficulties with pitch preparation were compounded when the groundsman resigned.

The 1st XI fielded a strong team:- Ejaz Ahmed, Ralph Coetzee, Stephen Dyer, Wayne Horwood (captain), Gary Wilson, Simon Redpath, Alan Coulter, Neil Black, Hamilton Coulter and Colin Andrews were all regulars. Despite this the team failed to win a single home game.

A steering committee was set up to investigate the possibility of a move. Under the Chairmanship of Jonathan Hool, and with Andrew Babington as Hon. Secretary contact was established with the Civil Service Club, based at Stormont.

The Civil Service Chairman, Nigel Rountree, and their President, Peter Lunney were receptive to the overtures made, and tentative arrangements were put in place to allow a merger between the two clubs.

Certain steps were essential for the merger to take place.

From the North point of view the cricket club had to demerge from Belfast Harlequins and reform as the North of Ireland Cricket Club. From the Civil Service viewpoint the membership had to endorse the proposed merger.

And so it happened that on the evening of 20th October 2004 two meetings took place.

At Deramore an extraordinary general meeting was held at which the cricketers prevailed in a vote to demerge from Belfast Harlequins. At the same time at Stormont the Civil Service club voted in favour of a merger.

On the following evening a meeting of the North cricketers took place and the members present subscribed to the re-establishment of the North of Ireland Cricket Club. After this meeting the members moved to the Maynard Sinclair pavilion at Stormont where the Civil Service membership were present, and the merger of the two clubs was concluded.

The Civil Service & North of Ireland Cricket Club was created.